Awaken
by joryuukage
Summary: A Souta Centric Fic. Souta, chasing Bouyo, gets pulled down the well as his sister did before him. Somehow he ends up with Sesshoumaru and Rin, and finds he must travel witht hem until he finds his sister.


Souta peered cautiously around the door of the well house, face pulled down in a frown as he gulped nervously.

"Mew," 

"Bouyo, tututututu…" he called softly, imitating the sound his mother always made when calling the feline.

"Mew," 

It was pathetic, and Souta's heart wrenched at the prospect that his cat could be hurt. Steeling himself against his fears, he took a hesitant step inside the well house. His sister might go down it, but he could not erase the terrifying image of her being pulled down into its depths by dozens of hands, and her horrified look as she was swallowed by the old well in slow motion, splinters of wood flying every which way.

"Bouyo," he called again, not wishing to go any further in than his one step into the shack that had once swallowed his sister.

"Mew," It sounded desperate this time, and Souta envisioned in vivid detail Bouyo lying at the foot of the well, slowly bleeding to death. He cursed his imagination, willing himself not to think those horrible things. He pulled a face as he pressed on, taking a few more wary steps inside.

He'd reached the bottom of the steps now, and took another step.

There was a horrible screech and Bouyo darted out from between his legs and to the safety of the main house. Souta stumbled and fell, catching himself on the brim of the old well.

"Stupid cat," he grumbled, glaring out the door of the shack.

He froze, hearing an odd, scratching sound from inside the well. He turned his head, shaking like a leaf.

Glowing cat-like yellow irises snapped open, glaring through the midnight darkness.

"I-Inu…Yasha…" Souta tried, but knew already that whoever the owner of the eyes was, it was not his beloved inu-hanyou hero.

There was a growl like a panther's and suddenly he was being dragged down the well by a demon. He screamed and threw his hands in front of himself to fend off the youkai, missing the magical cerulean glow as he furiously squeezed his eyes shut and jerked his head back, hitting it against the well wall.

* * *

Souta moaned, his eyes fluttering open. Startled at the sudden brightness, he shut his eyes tightly, sunlight pouring through his eyelids as if they were cheap curtains. He felt as if he'd just been hit over the head with a sledgehammer, head pounding with withering amounts of pain.

Souta opened his parched lips slightly, "Gramps…" he croaked, throat dry.

The pain subsided slightly in his head, and he reopened his eyes.

'_When did Gramps remove the roof…?'_ He wondered hazily, starting to stand. He looked around for the ladder, surprised to find only vines. He shook his head slightly, and was overwhelmed by a sense of vertigo, the scene of him falling down the well replaying in his mind as he fought not to throw up.

Remembering how he thought his Grandpa had removed the roof, he realized with a start where he must be.

"The Warring States era…" the words were dull and lacking emotion on his dry, parched lips. He took a deep breath, and pulled at the vines climbing down the well wall.

Would they support his weight?

Deciding he'd never know unless he tried, he grabbed a fistful of the foliage and warped it around his hand, pulling himself up.

He panted, leaning over the side of the well, beads of sweat trickling down the back of his neck; usually he was extremely athletic, even beating his sister in a race to school (when she was home) and top of his gym class. But the small climb up the well had tired him out. He supposed the blow to his head might have had something to do with it.

He sighed, and looked around for the path his sister had described to him before. Not finding one, he headed in the direction he was facing.

He staggered as if he were blind over tree roots, and ripped his clothes on bramble and thorny vines that crawled over the forest as if they were a second layer of skin.

Souta thought back on what his sister had been willing to tell him, and recalled vaguely that she had once said you could not get to the future without a jewel shard.(1) He tripped, twisting his ankle as he did so, and lay sprawled out on the forest floor.

"Why do I even bother?" the cerulean eyed(2) boy asked himself pessimistically, "It's not like I'm gonna find one anyway." These pessimistic thoughts in mind, he slowly slipped into a light slumber.

* * *

(1) Souta's a bit mixed up here, he thinks his sister told him you couldn't get home without a jewel shard, but what she had really said was that you couldn't get to the past without one.

(2) Friend told me Kagome's eyes were really blue; I figure Souta's eyes would be the same color.


End file.
